Contents

Characteristics

The Shivers progresses quickly. First the afflicted will get a chill, then shivering that gets progressively worse, until it is so bad that the teeth chatter and the arms and legs convulse uncontrollably. When the end is near, the lips turn blue and the victim begins to cough up blood.[1]

The course of the Shivers is remarkably swift: death can come within a day of the onset of the first chill. Old and young are most vulnerable, though even men in the prime of life can wake up healthy one morning and be struck dead by the next. In the winter of 59 and 60 AC, no more than one in five of those who caught the Shivers ever recovered.[1]

During the reign of Jaehaerys I Targaryen, many suspected that the plague was spread by rats, the small brown kind that sneak aboard sailing ships. It was clear that the disease was not native to Westeros, but spread from some foreign land, as it started in the ports of Westeros. The maesters of the Citadel never conclusively determined if the rats were the cause of the spread of the disease, but cats became very popular and expensive during the epidemic.[1]

Qarl Corbray, the Lord Commander of the City Watch of King's Landing, succumbed to the Shivers as well, and many men of the City Watch fell ill, resulting in the city becoming truly lawless for a while. The people of King's Landing killed Lord Rego Draz, the master of coin, in 59 AC when he happened upon a hungry and partially drunk crowd on the streets of the city. Enraged by the sight of the Pentoshi, blaming him for the high price of bread during the famine (and all foreigners for the disease), they attacked and killed Rego Draz, leaving his body on the street. Furious, King Jaehaerys rode forth himself to claim the body of his servant and find and punish the men responsible for his death.[1]